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Eight new trustees named, Hall to chair executive committee

Posted June 9, 2011; 12:00 p.m.

by Eric Quiñones

Princeton University has named eight new members of its Board of Trustees, and Kathryn Hall will assume leadership of the board as chair of the executive committee.

The new trustees are: A. Scott Berg and Meg Whitman, who were elected by the board to serve for 10 years as charter trustees; Carl Ferenbach III, Charles Gibson and Philip Hammarskjold, who were elected by the board to serve for four years as term trustees; Pyper Davis and Min Zhu, who were elected by alumni to serve four years as alumni trustees; and Aku Ammah-Tagoe, who was elected by the junior, senior and two youngest alumni classes to serve four years as young alumni trustee.

Hall will succeed Stephen Oxman as chair of the executive committee, a role he has held since 2005. Oxman will remain on the board through June 2012.

The new appointments all are effective July 1. Biographical information about the new trustees follows:

Ammah-Tagoe, of Silver Spring, Md., graduated this year with a degree in English. She served as a head writing fellow at the Princeton Writing Center and as a residential college adviser in Forbes College. She also was a senior news producer and staff reporter for WPRB, the student radio station. Next year Ammah-Tagoe will be a teaching fellow in English at Phillips Academy Andover, and would later like to pursue a Ph.D. in English and possibly a career in journalism.

Berg, of Los Angeles, is a noted biographer who won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1998 book "Lindbergh," about aviator Charles Lindbergh. He also is the author of "Goldwyn: A Biography," about film mogul Samuel Goldwyn, and "Max Perkins: Editor of Genius," a biography of the renowned book editor that grew out of Berg's Princeton thesis and went on to win the National Book Award. He graduated in 1971 with a degree in English. He previously served as an alumni trustee from 1999 to 2003.

Davis, of Bethesda, Md., is a member and former president of Princeton's class of 1987 who earned an A.B. in East Asian studies. She is chief operating officer of the SEED Foundation, a national nonprofit that establishes and oversees urban public boarding schools to prepare students from underserved communities for success in college and beyond. Davis previously worked as an executive with News Corp. and Katalyst LLC, a boutique consulting and venture capital firm. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Ferenbach, of Boston, is a co-founder and managing director of Berkshire Partners, a private equity firm. He graduated from Princeton in 1964 with a degree in classics and holds an MBA from Harvard. He and his wife Judy are co-founders of the High Meadows Foundation, which has supported numerous research, education and civic engagement projects at Princeton related to environmental sustainability. He also is chair of the Environmental Defense Fund. Ferenbach previously served as a term trustee of the University from 2006 to 2010.

Gibson, of New York, is an award-winning television journalist who was anchor of "World News" and co-anchor of "Good Morning America," both on ABC. In his more than 40 years in broadcast journalism, Gibson reported from around the country and the world, including interviews with several American presidents and world leaders. A 1965 Princeton graduate with a degree in history, Gibson was a term trustee of the University from 2006 to 2010.

Hammarskjold, of Atherton, Calif., is CEO of Hellman & Friedman, a private equity investment firm with offices in San Francisco, London and New York. He graduated from Princeton in 1987 with a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering, and also holds an MBA from Harvard. Hammarskjold has served as a member of the Princeton University Investment Co. (PRINCO) board and will become its chair July 1.

Whitman, of Atherton, Calif., spent 10 years as the CEO of eBay Inc. and was a gubernatorial candidate in California in 2010. She earned her bachelor's degree in economics at Princeton in 1977 and received an MBA from Harvard. Whitman previously served as a term trustee at Princeton from 2000 to 2004. She has been a generous donor to the University, supporting the construction of Whitman College -- Princeton's sixth residential college, which opened in 2007 -- as well as various teaching and athletics initiatives.

Zhu, of Potomac, Md., earned a master's in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1988. He is special adviser to the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, working to promote sustainable economic growth and financial stability. He previously was deputy governor of the People's Bank of China. Zhu established the Princeton Alumni Association of Beijing and is a member of the Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton. A graduate of Fudan University in his native China, he holds a Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University.

Board leadership changes

Hall, the incoming executive committee chair, is the CEO and chief investment officer of Hall Capital Partners LLC, a San Francisco-based investment management firm that she founded in 1994. She earned an A.B. in economics from Princeton in 1980. Hall, who will be the first woman to serve as chair of the executive committee, was elected a charter trustee in 2007 and currently is the PRINCO board chair, a role she will relinquish in July. She previously served as a University term trustee from 2002 to 2006.

Joining Hall as new members of the board leadership are Brent Henry, who will become vice chair, and Robert Murley, who will become clerk. Henry, who graduated from Princeton in 1969 with an A.B. from the Wilson School, was one of Princeton's first young alumni trustees and is a former president of the Alumni Association. Murley, who earned his A.B. in politics from Princeton in 1972, is co-chair of "Aspire: A Plan for Princeton," the University's five-year campaign to raise $1.75 billion.

Completing their terms as trustees on June 30 are Dennis Brownlee, Janet Holmgren, Karen Magee, Frank Moss, Sonia Sotomayor, William Walton, Peter Wendell and James Williamson.

The 40-member Board of Trustees is responsible for the overall direction of the University. It approves the operating and capital budgets, supervises the investment of the University's endowment and oversees campus real estate and long-range physical planning. The trustees also exercise review and oversight of changes in major policies, such as those involving admission and financial aid.